The only problem I had really was that Mark would have to be convinced to let me get on with it. I think I told you in one of my letters that I started out squeamish when I was first on the wards, and it’s like that for everyone. It takes a while to get used to people who are sick, or who have problems eating and going to the toilet and so on. But if he wanted me to keep on bringing in money so he didn’t have to work, he’d have to get used to it. So I told him about Emu Cottage closing down and I said, ‘But we can take one of the kids here and they’ll pay me for doing it.’

The first thing he said was, ‘But I don’t want a retarded kid running around here.’ And, ‘Don’t you have to be a Christian or something?’ And that’s what a lot of people think – that if you’re a foster carer and you have disabled kids, you must be a Christian. But you don’t have to be a Christian, and you don’t have to be a nurse. You don’t have to be anyone special because basically the welfare department will take anyone. Think about it: they’ve got all those kids who used to be in institutions so of course they’ll take anyone to be a foster carer – and if you don’t believe me you should go out and have a look at some of the places where foster kids live.

Mark said, ‘But what am I going to have to do? Do I have to touch them or feed them? Because I’m not doing that.’

I said, ‘You won’t have to do anything because I’ll make a room at the back of the house for them, and all you’ll have to do is have the Working with Children check,’ which is the police check that everyone has to have before they can work with kids. Mark said, ‘Well, you can forget it then, Snow, because I’m not going to be able to get one of those police checks, am I? Because I’ve got a record.’

Of course I knew he had a record – I’d been home plenty of times when the phone had gone and it would be the cops, saying you better come and bail him out – and he was right, that might have made the Department say, ‘Oh no, we don’t want him.’ But I was pretty sure I’d be able to explain to them about his background in the boys’ home and how he nursed his mum, and maybe it would make them think he’d be a good carer, because he’d have an understanding of institutions. So I was basically upfront with the Department. I said, ‘Mark can get a bit stupid when he’s been drinking but he’s quit that now.’ And besides, how many people do you think were lining up to take these children, Jack? Don’t bother answering that because I can tell you: there was nobody lining up to take in disabled children. If you don’t believe me you should talk to the parents and they’ll tell you: ‘We’ve been trying to get respite for years and years and when you finally find somebody who can take your child, even it’s for a few hours a day, you never give them up.’